


Learning In Sevens

by kiranstein



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Gen, Kidfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-07
Updated: 2013-07-07
Packaged: 2017-12-17 23:25:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/873176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiranstein/pseuds/kiranstein
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Childhood's made up of more than sweet delights and candied apples-Luhan learns early on and he doesn't forget.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Learning In Sevens

 

There was a point in his life that he didn’t appreciate his brother. Luhan would even say that appreciate would have been too much of a euphemism for what he did feel for his brother.

Born seven pounds exactly, Sehun was a mess of slim and gunk and soft baby skin. So soft that their mother stopped patting Luhan’s cheeks in favor of giggling every time Sehun reached up to poke her or tug at her hair.

He tried to do that with Luhan too, but Luhan was much better at dodging sneaky fingers and saliva filled kisses, and rather good at observing from the floor where Sehun couldn’t reach. His chubby fingers would try and stretch but they would never reach far enough from between the bars of the crib. In that, Luhan found a sense of satisfaction.

Luhan would hold things out of reach and wait until Sehun’s brows scrunched up before putting back to stop Sehun’s impending wails. He hated being Sehun’s guide to everything new and exciting but he hated being scolded more, so he would introduce the objects in the room to Sehun meter by meter until Sehun was just a hair away from touching them and then pull them back.

This of course, only worked until Sehun was allowed out of the crib and started to crawl wherever Luhan went, including down the stairs and through the kitchen, making Luhan watch over him in case he got hurt. Sometimes, Luhan could almost see the glee in Sehun’s eyes in those moments and he itched to just reach out and smack it off because it wasn’t funny that Luhan had to stay and watch over his dumb baby brother who couldn’t even climb down the stairs without help when everyone else got to play outside and make friends. But under the watchful eyes of their mother, their babysitter, their _grandma_ , he could only suck in his cheeks and stare balefully outside while Sehun discovered yet another wonderfully interesting object in their foyer.

It wasn’t until Sehun learned to walk that Luhan discovered how low his tolerance for inaptitude was, not that he was surprised, but Sehun picked up independence slower than snails crawled. Between the bouts of _Luhan watch_ and _Luhan help_ , Luhan was ready to chuck his favourite truck at Sehun’s face.

What was more maddening still was their mother’s completely lack of care for Luhan’s sanity, she constantly coddled Sehun, brushing off his lack of friends and pushing him on to Luhan. It lead to more frigid dealings on Luhan’s end but Sehun was still at the early ages of toddling where he knew not that the world meant him harm.

Seven was the age Luhan remembered the most, not because it was the most exciting nor was it the worst, he remembered it because it was the year of the flood. It wasn’t exactly a flood even though the news had sensationalized to be the tragedy of the decade; it was just an influx in the amount of water in their lakes and rivers. The tides were high and stepping stones disappeared, no one died and the animals were unaffected. The effect was so minute that Luhan hadn’t discovered it until he and Sehun were making their way home from the willow clearing.

 

 

 

The clearing being a quiet place, more wind than bird cries, was the only place where Luhan could stand to keep Sehun company for more than a few moments. It offered Luhan a chance to appear to be attentive while blanking out and thought he had regretted not paying attention on a few occasions, they were not significant enough for him to be fully aware of Sehun’s ramblings, particularly on cool autumn days when all he wanted to do was watch the birds migrate overhead, swooping in formations towards the south and take in the warm smells of baking that wafted through their part of the woods.

He was reluctant to leave when Sehun started pushing for them to go home, the sky so vivid an orange with streaks of clouds so red making the birds appear an even larger stain in the sky, but he held in his protests and lead the way home. Sehun kept complaining they weren’t moving fast enough and that it would soon be dark if they didn’t go faster and he kept on moaning and a sudden urge to run overtook Luhan and he ran all the way to the river, looking back once in a while to check if Sehun was huffing along behind him.

He reached the river, panting and victorious, flushed with pleasure, and he waited for Sehun to catch up. His bumbling brother took nearly a minute to reach the river and by that time, Luhan was irritated enough with his slowness that all his earlier euphoria had left.

“Why can’t you just hurry up? I thought you wanted to get home before the dark,” Luhan snapped when Sehun finally got caught up.

“I’m trying, you’re just going too fast,” Sehun replied, whining and sticking his bottom lip out.

Luhan scoffed and pushed his brother in front of him so he could cross first because heaven forbid that his little brother might get left behind _again_ , he could almost hear his mother’s voice in his head reprimanding him.

Sehun took little steps, stepping on the little stones as well as the large ones and taking a long time to settle on each stone securely before moving forward. Luhan tried to hustle him along by nudging him forward but Sehun held firm until Luhan decided that he’d had enough and pushed forward, skipping over a stone and stepping on the next at the same time as Sehun, pushing Sehun over to the other side, why was Sehun so slow, it’d be better if he was just gone–

 

 

–until suddenly, Sehun wasn’t at his side any more–

 

 

“Lu-ha -”

Luhan jerked himself to the side, pitching and reaching for Sehun’s outstretched hands, Sehun already sinking down in the currents because the water was high wasn’t that what his mother said and it was so _so_ cold, his fingers were going numb and Sehun still wasn’t coming up – he grunted and grinded his teeth, pulling and huffing and he left go of Sehun’s left hand to grab Sehun’s collar, _that’s the way you hold a kitten Luhan not a baby_ , and yanked as hard as he could, Sehun finally half way back on to the stone and Luhan pulled again, his hands under Sehun’s arms and Sehun was up, Luhan’s fingers were frozen and he could barely stop his teeth from chattering, it was so cold but Sehun was still warm and soft – baby soft.

Luhan quickly hulled them both to the other side, past the bone chilling water and dumped Sehun down on the ground, his hands searching for Sehun’s face, his eyes watering.

“A-a-are you okay? Are you hurt?” Luhan pressed, his hands roaming up and down searching for bruises, blood, anything that meant Sehun wasn’t okay – _his baby brother wasn’t okay_.

Sehun bobbed his head, he was a blubbering mess, all snot and tears, and for the first time in his life, Luhan was never more relieved to see his mess of a brother, and yanked off Sehun’s jacket to replace with his own, his hands still rubbing Sehun’s arms up and down, this time hoping to warm Sehun up.

“We’re going to go home and we’re going to get you warm and you’ll be okay, okay?” Luhan held them close together, hugging Sehun and rubbing his head and neck and his brother nearly _died_ and he was the one–

Sehun just nodded and kept himself plastered to Luhan while Luhan slowly got them both up and picked Sehun up, muffling his sobs in his brother’s wet hair that smelt of river water and fresh grass. He must have tripped several times on the way home, the woods were full of roots but his brother stayed in his arms, until they reached home and mother and father were fussing over them, giving them towels and ordering them in baths and Luhan demanded that they’d both be in the same bath, unwilling to let Sehun out of his sight.

When they were settled down in the library with Sehun tucked into Luhan’s side next to the roaring fire, Luhan calmed down enough to be afraid of the punishment he would receive. His arms tightened around Sehun and Sehun looked up at him curiously.

“It’s nothing,” he shushed.

Sehun nodded drowsily and burrowed back into their blankets, waiting for their parents to arrive with the promised meal.

Their parents arrived quietly, sitting down and smiling softly at them, making Luhan’s stomach turn in on itself.

“We’re very proud of you today Luhan,” their mother said, ruffling Luhan’s drying hair. “Sehun told us about how you saved him from the waters.” She smiled her soft, crinkly smile and their father did too. They both murmured more reassurances before leaving the boys to their meal, Luhan staring, dumbfounded, at his soup.

The only reason he came up with was that Sehun lied, but as he watched Sehun blow on his soup to cool it down, he scraped that thought. His brother was sweeter than that, his brother wasn’t _him_ , his brother thought he was _nice_.

Luhan bent forward to kiss his brother on the forehead with a mental promise to never, ever push his brother aside ever again.


End file.
